15th Summer Seminar on Jewish Genealogy

Excursions

Several side trips during the Seminar are planned. There is an additional charge for each of these, and advance sign-up is required, due to limited space.

Walking Tour Of Historic Jewish Boston

Ellen Smith

This three-hour walking tour of Boston's historic turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrant neighborhoods will include visits to Boston's North End, West End, and Beacon Hill, plus stops at Boston's landmark Vilna Shul (1919) and the 1995 New England Holocaust Memorial. The tour will focus on immigrant housing; religious, social, and educational institutions; and the civic response to mass immigration 100 years ago. Come and walk some of Boston's most scenic and historic districts, and trace the journeys of Jewish immigrants to Boston. Each tour is limited (due to community guidelines), advance sign-up required. Note: toilet facilities are extremely limited.
Cost: $15 per person.

Sunday, July 14, 10:00am-1:00pm. - - This tour is filled.
-- Starts at Holocaust Memorial. Meet in hotel lobby at 9:30am.
Sunday, July 14, 12:30pm-3:30pm. - - This tour is filled.
-- Starts at Vilna Shul. Meet in hotel lobby at 12:00 noon.
Friday, July 19, 9:00am-12:00pm.
-- Starts at Holocaust Memorial. Meet in hotel lobby at 8:30am.

Excursion to Newport, Rhode Island
Sephardic Odyssey: From Grenada to Newport

Rabbi Dr. Chaim Shapiro

Lecture: How and why post-Expulsion Spanish Jews came to settle in Newport (Rhode Island), New York, and other colonial American communities. Tour the Touro Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in continental North America. Also a walking tour of Newport's "Historic Hill" including the Jewish colonial cemetery and sights of American historical significance.

Bus leaves Boston 8:00am. Lecture at Touro Synagogue 10:00am. Walking Tour of Jewish Newport 11:00am-12:30pm. Afternoon time is free to shop, tour Newport mansions. Bus leaves Newport 3:30, arrives back in Boston about 5:30.

Tuesday, July 16, 8:00am-5:30pm. Bus Trip to Newport.

Cost: $20 per person.

Pittsfield National Archives

Daily trips to the National Archives branch at Pittsfield, located two and a half hours west of Boston. Holdings at Pittsfield include the complete New York Passenger Arrival Manifests; Philadelphia Passenger Arrival Manifests; Passenger Arrival Lists for other ports and the Canadian Border; complete Russian Consular Records; WWI Draft Registration records for New York and New England; Complete U.S. Federal Census records; other resources.

Daily, Monday-Friday, July 15-19.
Mini-Bus leaves Boston 8:00 am, arrives Pittsfield 10:30 am
Mini-Bus leaves Pittsfield 3:00 pm (archives closing time), arrives Boston 5:30 pm

Cost: $30 per person per day.

Limited availability. Advance signup required.
You must sign up (with deposit) for which day you want to go.

Research trip to Providence, Rhode Island

A research day in the capital of Rhode Island. Accessible sites include the State Archives, Supreme Judaical Court Archives, Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence City Hall, Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association, Providence County Probate Court, and Lincoln Park Cemetery in Warwick. Click here for a full description of available resources.

Friday, July 19, 9:00am-4:00pm.

Cost: $20 per person

National Yiddish Book Center

The National Yiddish Book Center is a clearinghouse for Yiddish books, established 15 years ago to collect the Yiddish literary heritage of earlier generations in order to preserve and pass it on to future generations. We will visit the Book Repository in Hadley, MA (not far from Amherst), about 2 hours west of Boston. The tour will be conducted at the warehouse, which is the size of several football fields. It will consist of the story of the Book Center and an opportunity to examine the book collection. There are genealogy books, particular history books and Yizkor books. The tour will take about one and a half hours.

Friday, July 19, 9:00 am-3:00pm.